Remember Poptrickia's exclusive sneak peek for Survival Island EP4? I showed you scenes, items, and the storyline of the unreleased episode from Poptropica's files. Now, I'm doing it again for Poptropi-con Island! And yes, it's really called that. If you guys like it, I'll continue this series, only available on Poptrickia!

UPDATE: Poptropi-Con has been officially confirmed by the Creators! Click here for the island info page. The first episode is called "Line Forms Here." We were right on! Keep reading to see what it's going to be like.

The Creators haven't yet announced this island, but I think we can pretty much call it confirmed. It's going to be released in episodes, and the first episode will likely come after Survival episode 4 (so that means July 31st). It'll be followed by Mission Atlantis episode 3, then Arabian Nights episode 1. So without further ado, check out the scenes for the first episode (there are only four main scenes, and three ad scenes):

There are only exterior shots so far, so it seems that we spend the whole episode just trying to get in. Here are the items that you can collect in this episode:

Sadly, you do not get to fly the jetpack. Throughout the rest of the episode, you go around asking people for tickets to Poptropi-con while they ask you for favors, such as finding them a jetpack or the Mjolnir, etc. There's going to be a lot of changing costumes in this island! It's such an important part that you're offered to save your look to the Costume Closet if you're a Member before you start. And the Fremulon, by the way, are a (fictional) alien race whose language and customs you have to learn.

Aside from that, Poptropi-con sounds like it has a fun, happy, light atmosphere with minigames and Costumizing gold. A refreshing change from the seriousness of Survival and Mission Atlantis. Just comment if you'd like more info on the storyline!

The Members-only promo items have been revealed as well. Looking at this image, there may be a Pizza Puff costume Members get to wear. Interesting, I guess. Even more interesting: Members will get to print a copy of their own Poptropican on the background of a Poptropi-con themed poster. Confused? Check out the image to the right.

I was also able to get a version of my non-Member Poptropican, too, but it was a bit cut off; click here for proof. This is despite the fact that the item card that gets you this poster is Members-only.

So all that and more is coming to Poptropica next week. What do you think about Poptropi-con Island?

Turns out I was wrong about my prediction. Survival Island is the upcoming island, not Deep Dive (although Deep Dive is still coming soon). Both, and all future islands, are going to be released in episodes rather than all at once. That means that we'll get less islands in the entire year, but they'll be spread out. I protest this change because of a few reasons:

Anyway, the first episode comes out on the 20th. In it, you crash-land in the Yukon and have to make a fire as it gets colder and colder at night. Next episode, you have to fish for food under ice. Also, you have a guidebook that you (my guess) have to rip pages out of to light the fire. As you can guess, that will complicate things...

First of all, the ads on the sides of the screen that have always been there are different. They're animated now! A small step, but still disturbing.

Even worse! Go to any Old Pop island (like Night Watch) and go left of Main Street. There's a new ad space! This one is much wider, and you have to walk through it rather than click the sign to continue. Soon it'll have more ads on it... oh, no.

Does anybody realize what's happening? Mocktropica is coming true!

The long-awaited bonus quest for Mocktropica Island is here. It's the first bonus quest to be released after the start of Early Access. Members, go to your Home Screen, click on the Mocktropica tile, and enter the basement of Poptropica HQ. Then check out my guide by clicking here: Mocktropica Island Guide. But there's more news...

Take a look at this screenshot. Look at it. It's an inter-room advertisement on Poptropica. Well, we've seen those often enough, you might be saying. Well, this one is different in a dreadful way. No friendly island theme in the background, no relation at all to the rest of the game, like the normal interstitial ad spaces had. This one has video that plays by itself. And sound that you never asked for. Not only that, but it shows up between every room, even in places where it doesn't make sense for there to be an in-between. In short, the end of the world. Looks like the dire predictions I made in this post (click to read) are coming true, slowly but scarily.

Further, the game itself is getting harder and harder to play. Sure, the different-but-not-bad new physics engine is bothering some, but this problem is different. (side note: anyone noticed the really erratic cursor behavior? They might as well have kept the crosshair, the classic, fun mode isn't working right at all). Have you noticed that Poptropica is chomping on much more of your computer's power these days? The advertisement loading alone forced me to close a few tabs on my browser--and I'm not using any old dinosaur either, but a laptop I got last year. Sound effects are loading way too late, music tracks are overlapping... I could go on and on. And the worst part is, this isn't even considered beta anymore. The Creators are even turning our classics, like Time Tangled (done), 24 Carrot (done), Mythology (confirmed), and Spy (rumored) into this mess. What can I say? Poptropica is the most awesome game in the world, and the only thing that can destroy it is itself. I hope that's not happening...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play Mystery Train. It is my most favorite game in the world.

The wackiest, most hilariously glitchy island is here for Members to play! In my opinion, this is a totally new, yet very interesting type of island... so interesting, that I am going to post a review of Mocktropica on New Year's Day! Stay tuned till then! Click the link below to see Poptrickia's guide. UPDATE: Guide is now complete!